Undiscovered Scotland: The Ultimate Online Guide

This page was going to be called The Climate
of Scotland, until we remembered the popular saying:
"Scotland doesn't have a climate, just weather!"
Actually, you can learn quite a lot by listening to what Scots say about their
weather. Some are pessimists like the comic who declared: "Scotland only has two seasons, July and Winter!" Perhaps
the most accurate insight on offer is a little more balanced:
"If you don't like the weather in Scotland, just wait five
minutes or move five miles, and you'll get different weather."

See Also:

Scotland does have a climate of course.
Technically it can be described as "temperate maritime": or, to put it another
way, the weather here is rarely extreme, but can be extremely changeable.

Given that Scotland lies on much the same latitude as Moscow and
Labrador, winters are rather milder than you might expect, because of the
warming effect of the Atlantic's Gulf Stream. Though it does tend to be colder
than the rest of the UK, and at times can get very cold. The UK's lowest ever
recorded temperature was -27.2°C, at both
Braemar in
Aberdeenshire on 10
January 1982 and Altnaharra in Highland on 30
December 1995.

More usually, average winter maximum daytime temperatures are
between 5°C and 6°C, and average summer maximum daytime temperatures
are between 15°C and 17°C. The maximum temperature ever recorded in
Scotland was 32.9°C, on 9 August 2003 at Greycrook in the
Scottish Borders.

Rainfall amounts vary significantly across Scotland. In parts of
the Western Highlands, rainfall can exceed 3000mm each year as warm, wet air
flowing in from the Atlantic is forced to rise to higher altitude by the
region's mountains, where it cools and condenses, causing rain. On the other
hand, parts of eastern Scotland have as little as 800mm rainfall each year.
Typically, measurable rain can occur on as many as 250 days each year in the
Highlands, compared with 175 days on the coasts of
Angus,Fife and
East Lothian. The
comparable figure for the driest places in south east England is 150 days. On
the other hand, Scotland's average of 3-9 days per year on which thunderstorms
are experienced, compares favourably with England's 9-15 days.

Scotland has traditionally been known as a venue for winter
climbing and winter sports more widely. Recent years have seen less snowfall
than the longer term average, which can see sleet or snow falling on up to 100
days in parts of the Grampians. The least snowfall is experienced by areas
along the west coast, with snow falling on as few as 20 days each year. The
presence of snow, both falling and laying, also varies considerably with
altitude as average temperatures drop by about 2°C for each 1000ft climbed.

Transport problems caused by severe winter weather have been a
relative rarity in recent years, but the areas most prone to disruption are
generally those exposed to the colder air coming in from the east across the
North Sea: with Easter
Ross,Aberdeenshire
and Angus usually being first
in the firing line. Scots know that the usual first sign of winter's arrival is
when Radio Scotland's traffic news announces that the B974 Cairn O'Mount road
From Fettercairn to
Banchory has been closed by
snow. This road, totally exposed to weather from the east and climbing to
nearly 1500ft, is always the first to close and the last to be opened.

Amounts of sunshine can also vary considerably across Scotland.
Parts of the north west can have average annual sunshine totals of between 700
and 1000 hours, while parts of Angus,Fife, the
Lothians,Ayrshire, and
Dumfries and
Galloway average over 1,400 hours of sunshine per year. Scotland's sunniest
city is Dundee. The sunniest
individual location is often the Hebridean island of Tiree which managed 329
hours of sunshine during May 1946 and again in May 1975. At the other extreme
Cape Wrath, in the far north west of
Sutherland, had a total of
just 0.6 hours of sunshine in January 1983.

When thinking about light it also pays to remember that day length
varies significantly with latitude. In June there is up to 4 hours more
daylight in Lerwick, Shetland,
than in London. On the other hand, in December there is be up to 4 hours less
daylight in Lerwick than in
London.

As in the rest of the UK, the prevailing wind across Scotland is
from the west or south west. Because of their lack of shelter, some of the UK's
windiest places are in Scotland, and the Western Isles,
Orkney and
Shetland each have over 30 days
of gales every year. The - unofficial - record for UK windspeed was 177mph,
measured in the winter of 1962 on the top of
Saxa Vord, the highest hill on
Unst, the most northerly of the
Shetland Islands: just as the
recording equipment blew away.

Given that the weather can have such a major influence on our day
to day experience of Scotland and its landscape, it is a shame that the
reliability of weather forecasts is not as good as most visitors to the country
will be used to, whether they are from across the Atlantic, from mainland
Europe, or from England. The problem lies in the fact that Scotland's weather
is simply so changeable: forecasting techniques that work well for much of the
UK simply fall short when applied to Scotland, especially during periods when
change is taking place. Anyone staying in Scotland who watches the BBC National
and BBC Scotland weather forecasts on Breakfast TV has to be struck by the
frequency with which the Scottish element of the UK forecast is simply
inconsistent with the more detailed separate Scottish forecast. And all too
often neither turns out to be consistent with the weather that actually turns
up later that day.

And, finally... If you had a free choice, when would be the best
time of year to visit Scotland? Without any hesitation we'd recommend May, with
June as a second choice. The weather tends to be at its best in terms of most
sunshine and least rainfall (though not highest temperatures); the days are
extremely long; the visitor attractions are open, yet visitors are still
relatively thin on the ground; and, especially if you are visiting the
Highlands, the midges have not
yet made their presence felt.